IUCN Status: Vulnerable
EPBC Threat Rating: Very high
IUCN Claim: “ Recent research has demonstrated marked detrimental impact of introduced predators: Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral Domestic Cats (Felis catus)’”
Cats hunt rats (Pavey et al. 2008; Pavey et al. 2014)./Read & Cunningham (2010) described an occasion where more plains rats were captured inside than outside a fenced reserve where carnivores were excluded. Rats were last confirmed at Koonchera Dune, SA, 56 years after cats arrived (Wallach et al. 202X).
Rats were last confirmed in NSW 35 years before cats arrived (Table S2).
There are no studies evidencing a negative association between cats
and plains rats which report data. In contradiction with the claim, NSW
extirpation record pre-dates cat arrival record, and the two species
co-ocurred at one locale for over half-a-century.
Abbott, The spread of the cat, Felis catus, in Australia: re-examination of the current conceptual model with additional information. Conservation Science Western Australia 7 (2008).
Chris R. Pavey, Stephen R. Eldridge, Mike Heywood, Population Dynamics and Prey Selection of Native and Introduced Predators During a Rodent Outbreak in Arid Australia, Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 89, Issue 3, 5 June 2008, Pages 674–683, https://doi.org/10.1644/07-MAMM-A-168R.1
Pavey CR, Cole JR, McDonald PJ, Nano CEM (2014) Population dynamics and spatial ecology of a declining desert rodent Pseudomys australis: the importance of refuges for persistence. J Mammal 95: 615–625
Read, John L., and Ross Cunningham. “Relative impacts of cattle grazing and feral animals on an Australian arid zone reptile and small mammal assemblage.” Austral Ecology 35.3 (2010): 314-324
Wallach et al. 2023 In Submission